ALICE is a general-purpose heavy-ion experiment designed to study the physics of strongly interacting matter and the quark–gluon plasma in nucleus–nucleus collisions at the LHC. It currently involves more than 900 physicists and senior engineers, from both the nuclear and high-energy physics sectors, from over 90 institutions in about 30 countries.The ALICE detector is designed to cope with the highest particle multiplicities above those anticipated for Pb–Pb collisions (dNch/dy up to 8000) and it will be operational at the start-up of the LHC. In addition to heavy systems, the ALICE Collaboration will study collisions of lower-mass ions, which are a means of varying the energy density, and protons (both pp and pA), which primarily provide reference data for the nucleus–nucleus collisions. In addition, the pp data will allow for a number of genuine pp physics studies.The detailed design of the different detector systems has been laid down in a number of Technical Design Reports issued between mid-1998 and the end of 2004. The experiment is currently under construction and will be ready for data taking with both proton and heavy-ion beams at the start-up of the LHC.Since the comprehensive information on detector and physics performance was last published in the ALICE Technical Proposal in 1996, the detector, as well as simulation, reconstruction and analysis software have undergone significant development. The Physics Performance Report (PPR) provides an updated and comprehensive summary of the performance of the various ALICE subsystems, including updates to the Technical Design Reports, as appropriate.The PPR is divided into two volumes. Volume I, published in 2004 (CERN/LHCC 2003-049, ALICE Collaboration 2004 J. Phys. G: Nucl. Part. Phys. 30 1517–1763), contains in four chapters a short theoretical overview and an extensive reference list concerning the physics topics of interest to ALICE, the experimental conditions at the LHC, a short summary and update of the subsystem designs, and a description of the offline framework and Monte Carlo event generators.The present volume, Volume II, contains the majority of the information relevant to the physics performance in proton–proton, proton–nucleus, and nucleus–nucleus collisions. Following an introductory overview, Chapter 5 describes the combined detector performance and the event reconstruction procedures, based on detailed simulations of the individual subsystems. Chapter 6 describes the analysis and physics reach for a representative sample of physics observables, from global event characteristics to hard processes.

Metal nanoparticles harbour numerous exceptional physiochemical properties absolutely different from those of bulk metal as a function of their extremely small size and large superficial area to volume. Naked metal nanoparticles are synthesized by various physical and chemical methods. Chemical methods involving metal salt reduction in solution enjoy an extra edge over other protocols owing to their relative facileness and capability of controlling particle size along with the attribute of surface tailoring. Although chemical methods are the easiest, they are marred by the use of hazardous chemicals such as borohydrides. This has led to inclination of scientific community towards eco-friendly agents for the reduction of metal salts to form nanoparticles. Tannic acid, a plant derived polyphenolic compound, is one such agent which embodies characteristics of being harmless and environmentally friendly combined with being a good reducing and stabilizing agent. In this review, first various methods used to prepare metal nanoparticles are highlighted and further tannic acid mediated synthesis of metal nanoparticles is emphasized. This review brings forth the most recent findings on this issue.

Abstract:The studies on seasonal abundance of diamondback moth Plutella xylostella were conducted in two years 2004-2005 and 2005-2006. Survey data of three localities of Aligarh district showed that initial infestation by P. xylostella occurred when the farmers started transplantation of cauliflower seedlings, the density of P. xylostella ranged between 0.90 to 2.38 and 0.27 to 5.84 larvae and pupae/plant in I week of July, 2004 and 2005, respectively, and the rate of parasitization was quite low. Temperature and humidity recorded maximum and minimum i.e. 24.15° to 32.91°C and 68.60 to 91.30 percent, respectively. Population build up is usually observed in II to IV week of September. Cotesia plutellae was found to be a dominant larval parasitoid while, Oomyzus sokolowskii parasitized relatively few pupae of P. xylostella. 34.77°C significantly (p < 0.01) enhanced the population of DBM also on 8th September, 8th Octo-

We report some results on the compound multiplicity distribution at 340 GeV/c − nucleus interactions. Compound multiplicity distribution is found to depend on the target size and the distribution becomes broader. The peak of the distribution shifts towards higher values of the compound particle multiplicity. Mean compound multiplicity is found to vary linearly with grey, heavy, and shower particle multiplicity. Correlations between different particle multiplicities have been studied in detail. Dispersion of compound multiplicity distributions and its ratio with the mean value is observed to obey a linear relationship with different particle multiplicities except for shower particles where dispersion is almost independent of shower particles. Mean normalized multiplicity has also been studied in terms of created charged particles.

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Sugarcane crop has become a more important crop of Pakistan with the emerged crises of sugar in the past few years. The potential crop yield is restricted because of many factors e.g. imbalanced use of macro fertilizers, less application of micronutrients, diseases, insects and pest attacks etc. Micronutrients are usually ignored by most of our farming community. A field trial was performed at Sugar Crops Research Institute Mardan in order to assess the effect of different times of application of Zinc Sulfate (ZnSO4) as zinc (Zn) on the sugarcane crop. Four treatments (T1: control with no application of Zinc Sulfate, T2: Soil application of ZnSO4, T3: Foliar application at tillering stage 1.5 kg ha -1 and T4: Foliar application with the 2 nd dose of Nitrogenous Fertilizer) were replicated thrice at SCRI in the year 2010-12. Results showed highly significant yields and millable cane for the foliar applications at the later stages of growth. The millable cane significantly increased with foliar application at time of 2 nd dose of nitrogenous fertilizer i.e. 8.71 numbers of millable canes m -2 . Similarly, highest yield was recorded by foliar application with the 2 nd dose of N fertilizer with a value of 69.50 t ha -1 . It is therefore concluded that the micronutrient Zn must be applied at later stages of sugarcane growth in order to get more yield and also help getting good ratoon crop.

The size evolution of gold nanoparticles synthesized using tannic acid with initial gold chloride concentrations ranging from 0.2 -2 mM at various tannic acid to chloroauric acid molar ratios (ranging from 2:1 to 12:1) has been analysed. Dynamic light scattering spectroscopic and tramission electron microscopic analyses were performed to assess the size of formed gold nanoparticles. Two different patterns of nanoparticle size evolution were obtained; the size evolution trend below 1 mM chloroauric acid concentration was found to be different from the one obtained at gold chloride concentrations higher than or equal to 1 mM. In case of sizes obtained for less than 1 mM gold chloride concentration, a general decrease in particle size was observed with increase in gold salt concentration. On the contrary, for the particles synthesised using chloroauric acid concentrations higher than or equal to 1 mM, with increase in gold salt concentration, a general increase in nanoparticle diameter was seen. For the molarities 0.2 and 0.5 mM, with increase in tannic acid/ chloroauric acid ratios, first the size decreases and then increases and finally reaches saturation. Particles formed at molarities greater than equal to 1 mM do not exhibit plateaux in their size rather initially decrease and then increase in response to increasing tannic acid/chloroauric acid ratios except for 2 mM concentration at which a small saturation is observed. The findings enumerate that higher gold chloride concentrations leave a significant impact on the sizes of gold nanaparticles obtained using tannic acid as a reducing agent of chloroauric acid solution.